What Happens When We Feel Threatened?
When we feel threatened what do we do? We attack back! At least this is what we do when we are in survival mode. We believe that it is the only way we can survive the threat. It is an instinctual, brain driven way of reacting to the perception of threat. Our brains go into a primative mode of "fight or flight" that sends us into a kind of (brain) chemically induced reactivity.
George Bush, Jr. seems to think that is where we should always come from in response to threat. And, its a tactic that has worked well for him politically until recently. People are often motivated to vote out of fear. Fear tactics tend to work well during elections. There was an article about this in newsweek a while back. If you follow elections, you can see how this has worked. Gulianni still envokes 9/11 to get voters on his side.
Is there another reaction possible?
What if there were another way to respond to the perception of threat? What if we could use a different part of our brain to respond when we feel threatened? We do have a part of our brain, in fact, the bulk of our brain, that is set up to think rationally, to ponder difficult solutions and to do more than react. This higher thinking part of our brain evolved since we became humanoids. Our primative, mammalian brain is the part of our brain that reacts to threat with the "fight or flight" mode.
When we choose to use our thinking brain we can often come up with more compassionate reactions than just merely fighting or fleeing. This is not to say there are not times when that is the rational reaction. But what if we could come up with a compassionate response when we are feeling threatened? How would that change our immediate world? How would that change the world at large?
What would another possible response be to Iran?
Do you think there could be a response to Irans threats that the US could take that could provide us with a different outcome than Iraq? I don't know, I am not a politician, but I think it is worth considering. Could compassion work on the world stage? Tell me what you think!
